As the years have passed, the “festive” or holiday season, which includes Christmas day, has become a commercialized farce, along with other similar secular celebrations such as Mothers Day and Valentines Day. The original meaning and “reason for the season” has been replaced with lavish parties, extreme festivities, entertainment and expensive gifts. While there is nothing wrong with any of those things, they certainly do not represent Christmas. No longer is it “the thought that counts”, rather the value of the gift which apparently demonstrates the level of affection one has for the recipient. Rarely is the birth of our Saviour brought into the picture on Christmas.
There is a war being waged on the traditional Christmas by the secular world, atheists, legalists and followers of false religions. “Merry Christmas” is being replaced with “Seasons Greetings” or “Happy Holidays”. This, of course, is being done in an attempt to promote a religiously tolerant society with the will, values and rights of man as the central focus. All the while, the battle for your bucks in the countdown of shopping days to Christmas rages on.
It was Santa Claus did it!
Back to the controversial issue among many Christians, which is the partaking or avoidance of Christmas celebrations. Continue reading →
We live in a generation which is certainly under God’s judgement, if you care to pause for a few moments and ponder the general state of the society in which we now live, I’m sure that much will become quite evident. Of course, those who are of the world, who are happy to be embroiled in pursuing wealth, health and prosperity and all kinds of ways to proving their own self-righteousness and personal value before God, will not recognize the fact that they are under that very same judgement.
Never before have materialism, humanism, pride and self-worth been so prominently at the forefront of man’s thinking and priorities. Almost every marketing strategy, campaign and advert appeals directly to the will, over-inflated importance and vain pride of man. No other singular concepts have ever been as sharply focused on, as human rights, vanity and the deceitful ideology of human democracy are, in our generation.
This same critique must be leveled at the marketing done by many “churches”, the bulk of which are at great pains to take their particular brand of will-worship or church tradition to the lost multitudes of the world. The grossly erroneous interpretation of true church growth, cleverly disguised as “spiritual revival”, is one which interprets that the greater the number of misguided people who respond to these highly effective sales ploys is, the greater the tacit approval of God must be for their brand of faith or for their particular efforts. It is God who adds to His church, not pastors, synods, committees, councils, conferences or the efforts of individuals or congregations. Continue reading →
As the years have passed, the “festive” or holiday season, which includes Christmas day, has become a commercialized farce, along with other similar secular celebrations such as Mothers Day and Valentines Day. The original meaning and “reason for the season” has been replaced with lavish parties, extreme festivities, entertainment and expensive gifts. While there is nothing wrong with any of those things, they certainly do not represent Christmas. No longer is it “the thought that counts”, rather the value of the gift which apparently demonstrates the level of affection one has for the recipient. Rarely is the birth of our Saviour brought into the picture on Christmas.
There is a war being waged on the traditional Christmas by the secular world, atheists, legalists and followers of false religions. “Merry Christmas” is being replaced with “Seasons Greetings” or “Happy Holidays”. This, of course, is being done in an attempt to promote a religiously tolerant society with the will, values and rights of man as the central focus. All the while, the battle for your bucks in the countdown of shopping days to Christmas rages on.
It was Santa Claus did it!
Back to the controversial issue among many Christians, which is the partaking or avoidance of Christmas celebrations. Continue reading →
Over time we have posted numerous articles on this blog in both English and Afrikaans which address the subjects of British-Israelism (“Israel Vision”) and the Hebrew Roots Movement. In South Africa, these belief systems have a rather large following, and in particular among the Afrikaner people. Although there are many different streams within these belief systems, they all have in common some form of false belief that they are either descendants of the Jewish people by inheritance, by birthright or by divine proclamation.
Additionally, as in some other, mostly Western, countries, these remain highly controversial subjects and the indoctrinated followers of these cult-like movements vehemently defend their positions, often with great eloquence and with what they firmly believe to be, Old Testament Scriptural support. Many of the deceived followers of these incorrect and false belief systems have commented at length in opposition to our articles and, in an almost equal number of instances, we have not approved their comments. With predictable regularity, these misled people lose all semblance of the measured, intellectual decency and Christian attitudes they portray at first, once they resort to cursing us when we do not publish their deceitful responses. There are very few names which we have not been called by these religious terrorists.
Although, to some this may seem to be unfair practice on our part, it remains our prerogative as to what is made public on this blog. This blog is not entitled, “For the Love of Falsehood”. We are accountable to all true Christians and to all those whom we do not know, but whom God has drawn to faith and salvation by His grace. The reason for posting the related articles has always been to expose the dangers posed by these false belief systems and to refute them. We do not post articles which oppose the “Israel Vision” and Hebrew Roots Movements in order to create a platform from which followers of these religious falsehoods, can further advertise their deceptive messages.
Neither has it been our intention to use the blog as a forum for any long-winded and, more than likely, fruitless, debate with those who are opposed to simple biblical and historical facts. By not approving many of the comments which support the South African form of British-Israelism, “Israel Vision” and Hebrew Roots Movements, we are at least able to limit, to a small degree, the exposure given to their false and deadly religious beliefs.
However, there is a group of South Africans who can rightfully lay claim to being of Jewish descent, and I’m sure that there will be many readers, and in particular many of our South African readers, who will find the following article very surprising. Continue reading →
Although legalism and the error it represents cannot be taken lightly, I thought it might be apt to place this well known bit of humour before Part 2 of this article. It (sort of) addresses legalism, yet it is contradictory as there is no pre-requisite for us to “earn” life eternal in lieu of the perfection of the sacrifice made by the Lamb, our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Of course, there are those out there who love and cling passionately to their legalism, who would fault the relevance or suitability of even this humour. I am well aware of some of them who do read my articles and in particular, I refer to those of immature contentious spirit who confuse a regard for the severity of sin, repentance and true sanctification with the gross error of legalism.
A man dies and goes to heaven. He is met at the Pearly Gates by a Heavenly custodian.
The custodian says, “Here’s how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. Continue reading →
It is with daily regularity that I encounter certain fellow Christians, although I suppose in some instances they are merely professing Christians, who practice or promote the errors of legalism. I’m sure that we all do, that is, cross paths with people who endorse and encourage some or other form of legalistic practice everyday. The heresy of legalism is rooted in an erroneous teaching or understanding which continually attempts to place the Christian under some or other system of law and thereby attempts to make salvation, or at the very least a few percentage points of our salvation, dependant on man’s own efforts.
Legalism promotes the belief that one can be saved by keeping, or to the best of one’s ability attempting to keep, God’s commandments. Very often adherence to additional rituals and rules are encouraged by the legalistic system in order to retain salvation. Certain aspects of human life are often considered taboo and are presented as being detrimental to the legalist’s success in ‘achieving’ salvation. Legalists believe that they can, through their own efforts at self-righteousness and legal obedience, impress God sufficiently so as to influence His attitude toward them, and therefore reward them with eternal salvation.
Legalism can be described as a false doctrinal position or worldview within certain Christian Continue reading →
Another year is coming to an end, and for me personally, another dreaded “festive” season is fast closing in. As a child, Christmas time was by far my favourite part of the year; school holidays, presents, friends, feasting and families. Even while our children were growing up and lived at our home, Christmas always had a very special place in our calendar, for all the traditional reasons and some of our own.
Those comforting, warm (Southern hemisphere) and fuzzy days of simple togetherness and caring have long gone and have been replaced with over-priced consumer goods, mad shopping frenzies, enormous traffic congestion, escalating crime rates and death on the roads. It is all very sad. Quite frankly, I would probably be safer, more comfortable and my normality would be less disrupted if I found myself evangelizing on some Far-Eastern quiet Bhuddist island on December 25 this year.
As the years have passed, the “festive” or holiday season, which includes Christmas time, has become a commercialized farce, along with other similar festivals such as Mothers Day and Valentines Day. The original meaning and “reason for the season” has been replaced with lavish parties, extreme festivities, entertainment and expensive gifts. No longer is it “the thought that counts”, rather the value of the gift which apparently demonstrates the level of affection one has for the recipient. Rarely is the birth of our Saviour brought into the picture on Christmas, except in some churches and, of course those are quite empty over the holidays. Almost half of the congregation has gone to the beaches and leisure resorts of the world and the other half are in the shopping malls. The vast majority of children in the world will never know the true meaning of Christmas or experience the love which can surround the day.
Additionally there is a war being waged on the traditional Christmas by the secular world, atheists and falsely religious. “Merry Christmas” is being replaced with “Seasons Greetings” or “Happy Holidays”. This, of course, is being done in an attempt to promote a religiously tolerant society and an acceptance of a secular world religion. The battle for your bucks in the countdown of shopping days to Christmas has also become a major spiritual battle.
That brings me back to the controversial issue among many Christians, which is the celebrating of Christmas in the traditional way. The debate as to whether or not Christians should celebrate Christmas on December 25, or any other date for that matter, has been raging for centuries. There are sincere Christians on either side of the debate, and many reasons as to why or why not Christmas should be celebrated by Christians.
One argument against Christmas is that the traditions have origins in paganism. Another argument is that the Bible forbids Christmas trees, and the passage in Jeremiah 10:1-16 is cited as biblical disapproval, even though that passage has no relevance to Christmas or Christians. Some regard the fact that the Bible gives no indication as to the birth date of Jesus as reason enough not to celebrate the day on December 25. Others, on the other hand, regard the fact that the Bible is silent on the issue as tacit approval by God over the celebration issue. Some say that because the world celebrates Christmas, Christians should avoid it. And so, on and on the arguments pro- and anti-Christmas are cited.
As in all things we should prayerfully seek guidance over the matter of Christmas, particularly if it is a divisive issue for the Christian family. Please tell us what you think about Christmas in our poll below.
God bless all those who, like myself, will be ever so slightly traumatized by the upcoming rush toward the end of the year and the fake celebrations of a Christ-less Christmas, and God also bless those who will enjoy every moment of celebrating the birth of our Saviour on December 25.
Particularly, I pray for God’s blessing on those who will not have a morsel of food, a drop of water or who will have to fight for their very life on the day that the rest of the world goes shopping and tolerates spoilt grandchildren demanding more expensive toys.
In Parts 1 and 2 of this article, I considered what should constitute, in part, the Christian approach to the ritual or adopted tradition which is now commonly referred to as the altar call. In this, the third posting in the little series, I consider the opinion of one of the foremost and effective biblical evangelists.
In “The Way of the Master”, Ray Comfort gives tongue in cheek advice to those preachers who, by means of their own conjured traditions and motions, wish to impress gullible sinners and make of them commercial converts. Rather than preaching the simple truth of the Gospel to the congregants, they preach variations of “easy-believism”. Thereby unscrupulous preachers proffer to do what they are unable to do and that is to attempt to “make” true believers at altar calls. Continue reading →
1 John 5:13 tells us, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” God wants us to understand salvation. God wants us to have the confidence of knowing for sure that we are saved. Briefly, let’s go over the key points of salvation:
(a) We have all sinned. We have all done things that are displeasing to God(Rom 3:23).
(b) Because of our sin, we deserve to be punished with eternal separation from God (Rom 6:23).
(c) Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins (Rom 5:8; 2 Cor 5:21). Jesus died in our place, taking the punishment that we deserved. His resurrection proved that Jesus’ death was sufficient to pay for our sins.
(d) God grants forgiveness and salvation to all those who place their faith in Jesus – trusting His death as the payment for our sins (John 3:16; Rom 5:1; Rom 8:1).
That is the message of salvation. If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are saved! All of your sins are forgiven, and God promises to never leave you or forsake you (Rom 8:38; Matt 28:20). Remember, your salvation is secure in Jesus Christ (John 10:28-29). If you are trusting in Jesus alone as your Savior, you can have confidence that you will spend eternity with God in heaven.
However, there are some who believe differently, and that salvation is not such a simple matter of faith. They would argue that salvation is a far more detailed and on-going process of actions whereby the sinner needs to retain their possible salvation by proving his or her worth. They may also believe that salvation is not to be attained during this life and that it will be determined according to their good works, sinless life or efforts in reaching a higher standard of holiness or increased spirituality.
Some may believe that they were saved subsequent to them having responded to an altar call, where they might have been asked to pray a certain prayer, or they were prayed for by an elder or other congregants. These people may have been told to carefully note the date of this “decision for Christ” for their future referral. After these events, some might have undergone life-changing experiences and for those believers we praise the Lord for His Grace in their lives, while others might have encountered no changes in their lives at all and may have become disillusioned with Christianity as a result. It is often important to these people to know and note the exact date and circumstances surrounding their “decision”.
Some may believe that they were saved by birthright or by infant baptism. Still others hold to the belief that salvation cannot be attained or assured during this life, as good works have yet to be performed to earn their salvation; some believe that only a sinless life can lead to salvation and that ever increasing holiness is necessary for any hope of salvation. In certain circles it is also referred to as “theosis” or becoming more like God by upholding certain traditions or ancient rituals, or by performing certain acts and deeds. For these people it is impossible to note when they were saved, or even when they will be saved.
Please tell us what your position is regarding this most important matter in the poll below. Of course, not all possibilities are covered by the choices available, so if your understanding does not appear among the choices, please give us a little detail of what you believe to be important, in the comments below the poll.
May your life be blessed with His Grace and with coming to know His Truth!
I found this on gotquestions website and think we should be aware of this another stream of deception in present in the churches today.
Answer: The premise of the Hebrew Roots movement is the belief that the Church has veered far from the true teachings and Hebrew concepts of the Bible. The movement maintains that Christianity has been indoctrinated with the culture and beliefs of Greek and Roman philosophy and that ultimately biblical Christianity, taught in churches today, has been corrupted with a pagan imitation of the New Testament gospels.
Those of the Hebrew Roots belief hold to the teaching that Christ’s death on the cross did not end the Mosaic Covenant, but instead renewed it, expanded its message, and wrote it on the hearts of His true followers. They teach that the understanding of the New Testament can only come from a Hebrew perspective and that the teachings of the Apostle Paul are not understood clearly or taught correctly by Christian pastors today. Many affirm the existence of an original Hebrew-language New Testament and, in some cases, denigrate the existing New Testament text written in Greek. This becomes a subtle attack on the reliability of the text of our Bible. If the Greek text is unreliable and has been corrupted, as is charged by some, the Church no longer has a standard of truth.
In today’s spirit of ecumenism, many evangelicals have called for the Protestant Church to lay aside its differences with Rome and pursue unity with the Catholic Church. Is that possible? Is Roman Catholicism simply another facet of the body of Christ that should be brought into union with its Protestant counterpart? Is Roman Catholicism simply another Christian denomination?
For the Love of His Truth 